Chapter 2

"Draco... stop..."

A carriage drawn by four pegasi rolled to a halt. Carved into its mahogany chassis was the crest of the Black Dragon clan—Draco's personal transport.

The velvet curtains were pushed aside by a pale, delicate hand.

Supported by two handmaidens, Cecilia swayed unsteadily as she stepped down.

She wore an immaculate, snow-white gown. Her face was so entirely drained of color it bordered on translucent, making the stark trace of blood at the corner of her lips glaringly obvious. Her brows were knit together in a picture of heartbreaking, fragile distress.

Draco immediately sheathed his sword.

He closed the distance in long, hurried strides and scooped her effortlessly into his arms.

His voice completely dissolved into naked affection and reproach. "Why did you come out here? The wind is too harsh; your body can't take this."

"I was so afraid... you'd commit too much slaughter for my sake." Cecilia slumped against Draco's solid chest, panting weakly.

Yet, peering over his shoulder, her gaze swept over Lilia's prone form with a chilling, calculating flick.

"Sister Eliana must still despise me. If she truly refuses to see me, refuses to give up her Starblood... then let it be. This is simply my fate. I don't want the two of you shedding blood over me."

"Stop talking. I will not allow you to die." Draco tightened his hold on her. When he turned his head back to Lilia, the tenderness in his eyes instantly froze into biting glaciers.

"That venomous bitch Eliana should have died seven years ago. If I hadn't needed to preserve her heart's blood to save you, I would have ground her bones to dust in those dungeons long ago!"

Hearing the words ground her bones to dust, a desolate, mocking laugh ripped from my floating soul.

Draco. Do you really assume you didn't?

Seven years ago, the Abyssal Dungeons were pitch-dark and sweltering, the air suffocatingly thick with the stench of rotting flesh and rusted iron.

Massive chains dripping with Black Dragon venom had been driven straight through my collarbones, pinning me mercilessly to the stone wall.

You brought Cecilia right to my cell.

She stood tucked safely behind your back, tipping her chin to flash me a vicious, triumphant smirk from an angle only I could see.

You drew your dagger and plunged it into my chest without a microsecond of hesitation.

"Eliana, this is what you owe her," your apathetic voice echoed in my ears.

I watched as you physically carved open my chest. I watched as you activated the runic circle, forcibly siphoning away my Starblood. The agony of having my soul ripped apart piece by piece stole the very breath required to scream.

I begged you. I sobbed and pleaded, screaming that I was pregnant, that your own flesh and blood was growing inside me, begging you to just stop.

But you only looked down at me and said, "Stop lying. And even if it were true—a bastard spawned by a poisonous wretch like you has no right to exist in this world."

My heart's blood was bled completely dry.

I howled in that cell for three days and three nights, right up until the fully formed body of our baby boy slipped away in a pool of my own ruined blood.

And at the very moment my child and I took our final breaths in the dark, you were standing in the brilliant sunlight with my sacrificed blood, accepting the roaring cheers of tens of thousands.

You were taking the Empress's crown that rightfully belonged to me, and placing it directly upon Cecilia's head.

"You're lying! You hypocritical, venomous snake!" Lilia's feral roar violently yanked me from the flashback.

Pointing a bloody finger at Cecilia, she spat, "You were never poisoned! You just wanted to steal my sister's throne! You want to leach our Astral bloodline dry! And Draco is an absolute imbecile, dancing helplessly in the palm of your hand!"

"Insolence!" Draco erupted into a towering rage. With a violent lash of his hand, a wall of invisible force struck Lilia square in the face.

She was launched backward like a broken doll, slamming sickeningly against a stone pillar of the Sanctuary before violently coughing out a puddle of blood.

Cecilia cowered into Draco's chest, tears spilling down her cheeks in rapid succession. "Draco, don't do this... Lilia's only been brainwashed by Sister Eliana..."

She broke into a horrific coughing fit, eventually hacking up a splatter of stark, black blood.

Draco's eyes instantly blazed blood-red.

Carefully handing Cecilia off to her maids, he unsheathed his longsword and stalked toward Lilia.

The absolute last shreds of his patience had disintegrated. Terrifying black flames violently erupted, engulfing his entire frame.

"Eliana, I know you're hiding in some corner of this Sanctuary, watching all of this." Draco's voice echoed through the cavernous hall like a death knell tolling from hell itself. "Since you refuse to care if your own biological sister lives or dies, I'll indulge you. I will burn her alive, inch by screaming inch. Let's see just how long you can hide!"

He raised the longsword, aiming the searing tip directly between Lilia's brows. The blistering heat of the black flames warped the very air around it.

Lilia squeezed her eyes shut in sheer despair. Yet, her trembling hands remained completely clamped over her chest, fiercely shielding a battered, worn wooden box.